Dili, January 15, 2025 (Média Democracia) – The government through the Secretary of State for Toponomy and Urban Organization (SEATOU) together with a joint team held a dialogue with the Camea Village community regarding the expansion of the region from Cristo-Rei to Culuhun to Manatuto. This activity was held at the Becora terminal, Dili, on Tuesday.
SEATOU, Germano Santa Brites said that all communities accompany the ongoing development programs and plans, which is why SEATOU leads joint teams to work across the region and the city of Dili.
“That is why as you accompanied last year, in half a year our work was focused on Dom Aleixo to Vera-Cruz, we saw from Lecidere to Tasi-tolu the expansion has been underway, the work has been underway and we are doing it step by step, this year starting from January onwards from Cristo-Rei in the Culuhun area to Manatuto.” SEATOU said.
He said the road widening will start from all public spaces. Therefore, he asked the public to cooperate with the government.
“Those who own houses, huts and kiosks will be affected by road widening, I ask all parties, the government and the state, the state and the government never think of making their people miserable. Regarding land ownership, you talk to Terras, the joint team is underway, regarding house identification from Public Works and measurement,” he said.
Therefore, he asked the people living in the Becora area to cooperate with each other, besides that narrow road space is also a factor in traffic accidents.
“The road enlargement is all good, we will all enjoy it, especially the road from terminal to Culuhun is very narrow, a few years ago there were often accidents, we all saw and accompanied it like a container that crashed here and caused several people to die, for that, continue to ask the community to cooperate with the government so that disasters can be reduced and development can be realized in our country,” he added.
As good citizens, we should work together so that the road widening can progress and the workers can work well.
On this occasion, the head of Camea village, Matos da Costa, advised the government to look at the condition of the community before carrying out the administrative and eviction process.
“Our recommendation is that before evicting the community, the government has answered to provide compensation to the community, that is what we agree with, as community leaders we have never intervened in government programs,” he suggested.
The government must see that it can evict people but also create temporary conditions or places for people, so that people can live temporarily while waiting for indemnification, because there are still no places for people.
He added that every month the state provides pensions to former officials in very large amounts, but providing money to affected communities is a very long process.
“Giving money to our people who have been affected by our development programs has been going on for a long time, in conditions like this we see that we are not talking internally to hinder development, but we are asking the government to think about the people well, because this country exists because of its people.” He added.
He asked the government to look carefully to create conditions because where will the children of the affected communities live? How will they sleep at night and how will they go to school?
In addition, this dialogue was also attended by the Camea Village community, Community Leaders, Cristo-Rei Post Administrator, Terras Propriedade Joint Team, Ministry of Public Works, Security Team, SEATOU Team and others.
Reported by : Estefania
Picture by : Estefania